Air separator



May 15, 1934. w. A. GIBSON 1,958,816

AIR SEPARATOR Filed Aug. 6, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. MLL/Afl A; /aso/v 9*. ATTORNEY W. A. GIBSON May 15, 1934.

AIR SEPARATOR Filed Aug. 6, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. WILL/HM A. fi/aso/v 5 4a ATTORNEY Patented May 15, 1934 UNITED STATES ATENT orricr.

AIR SEPARATOR Application August 6, 1932, Serial No. 627,778

1 l- Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in air separators in which a quantity of pulverized or comminuted material is discharged, as by centrifugal force, across the path of ascending air 5 currents which catch up and carry off the finer particles and deliver the same to a suitable receptacle while the coarser and heavier particles settle downwardly into a diiferent receptacle.

lhe object of the invention is to provide an ap- 1 paratus for effecting a better classification of the fine and coarse material and which is capable of selective adjustment in accordance with the character of the material being treated and with atmospheric conditions. More particularly the in- 5 vention relates to the type of air separator in which the pulverulent material is charged onto a rapidly revolving plate, known as a distributor plate, which flings the material outwardly in the form of a shower and a fan is provided for inducing an upward circulation of air through this shower of material.

It has heretofore been recognized that to obtain the most effici nt separation of material it is necessary to maintain the air within the separator chamber stirred up and in a state of turbulence, and to this end it has been proposed to mount wings or vanes upon the distributor plate which in their rotation serve to impress currents and counter-currents, eddies and swirls upon the draft 30 of ascending air. Various forms of wings have been devised for this purpose but none, so far as I am aware, has been found to be entirely satisfactory under all conditions.

According to the present invention I provide at circumierentially spaced intervals upon the distributor plate a series of wings, which I term turbulators, these turbulators being designed 0t only to produce an effective agitation of air with in the separator chamber, but also to operate within the area where the finely divided material showers off the distributor plate and function in the fashion of a beater to disintegrate the coarser particles of material. Each turbulator comprises an arm, or flight, which projects outwardly beyond the distributor plate into the space between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber, where the air is most heavily charged with material being hurled from the distributor plate. In its preferred form the invention contemplates the provision of a plurality of these flights arranged one above the other, one being located substantially in the plane of the distributor plate, and others being located above the plane of the distributor plate. During rotation of the distributor plate these flights sweep through the air with a sort of raking or combing action, the air encountered by the flights being caused to stream through the spaces between the individual flights and the coarse particles of matter entrained therein upon impact with the flights being broken up into smaller particles suitable for recovery as fines.

Certain of the flights or all of them, as desired, may be inclined out of a vertical plane so as to deflect the air and introduce into the current desirable rippling, eddying and swirling effects. These flights may be all inclined in the same direction or in different directions and at different angles, the object being to impart to the flights a form which is calculated to produce the most eiiective agitation of the air to promote the separation of the fine from the coarse particles of material. The flights project a substantial distance beyond the circumference of the distributor plate and preferably extend to a position in proximity with the Wall of the separator chamber, this having been found in practice to result in an improved operation of the separator because of a higher content of particulate matter contained in the air near this wall.

A wing designed to operate most effectively under one set of conditions may not operate nearly so well wh n those conditions are altered. Accordingly another important object of the invention is the provision of a separator which especially lends itself for use for classifying various kinds of materials having different characteristics, or for classifying similar kinds of material under varying atmospheric conditions, it being understood that increases in atmospheric humidity render more diflieult the problem of obtaining a clean separation of material. I therefore provide for a flexible adjustment of the turbulators to obtain the most advantageous operation under different conditions. This I accomplish by mounting the turbulators upon the distributor plate for adjustment bodily toward and away from the wall of the separator chamber and about a horizontal axis for varying the plane of the flights, the flights also being independently adjustable toward and away from each other to vary the spacing interval between the flights and also adjustable about transverse axes to change their angular position with respect to their path of movement. By this arrangement the operator in charge of the apparatus is enabled to make such adjustment of the turbulators as upon trial will be found to give most satisfactory results under any prescribed conditions.-

The turbulators may be manufactured and sold as accessory equipment for certain standard types of air separators now in common use to which they may be readily attached without involving costly structural changes.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description of one improved form of apparatus constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure. 1 is a cross-section through an air separator employing turbulators of improved construction; and

Figure 2 is a detail View of one of the turbulators.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings is somewhat diagrammatically shown in cross-section a wellknown type of air separator comprising-a cylindrical outer casing l and a cylindrical inner casing 2 which latter constitutes the enclosing wall of a separator chamber 3. The top of the outer casing is closed by a cover 4 and its bottom tapers downwardly terminating in a spout 5 for removal of the accumulation of fine particles of the material being classified. The upper end of the inner casing 2 is provided with an inwardly directed flange 6 spaced from the cover 4 of the outer casing so as to form therebetween a fan compartment 3'. The lower end of the inner casing converges downwardly to a position a short distance above the open end of a conical hopper '7, the space intervening between the bottom of the inner casing 2 and the upper end of the hopper '7 forming an air passage and being fitted with a series of baffles 9. The collection of coarse particles of material settling into the hopper '7 from the separator chamber is discharged through a spout 10 leading diagonally off from the bottom of the hopperand intersecting the tapered lower end of the outer casing.

A feed pipe 11 extends from a position above the apparatus vertically downward through the cover 4 into the separator chamber 3 and is surrounded by a hollow shaft 8 which latter is suitably journaled for rotation within bearings 12 at the top of the apparatus. For rotating the hollow shaft 8 there is provided a pulley 13 mounted upon the end of a horizontal shaft 14 which latter is operatively connected to the hollow shaft 8 through companion bevel gears 15 and 16. Within the fan compartment 3 are a series of fan blades 17 fixedly connected to the hollow shaft 8 by radially extending arms 18, the arrangement being such that upon revolution of the fan blades a circulation of air is created which follows in general a course, indicated by the arrows in Fig.

1, upwardly through the separator chamber into the fan compartment, thence downwardly through the space between the inner and outer casings, and thence through the baifles 9 back into the separator chamber.

The lower end of the hollow shaft 8 disposed within the interior of the separator chamber 3 is connected through the intermediary of a hub '18 to a circular bafile disk 19 which latter is centrally apertured so as not to obstruct the opening of the feed pipe 12. Suspended from the baffle disk 19 by means of bolts 20 surrounded by spacer rings 21 is a distributor plate 22 of substantially the same diameter as the baffle disk, the distributor plate serving as a pan to catch the material issuing from the lower end of the feed pipe and spread it outwardly by centrifugal force towards the surrounding wall of the separator chamber. This occasions a thorough dispersion of the material and permits the finer particles to be more readily picked up by the rising draft of air and carried ofi at the top of the separator chamber. Here the material escapes through the fan compartment 3 downwardly through the space between the outer and inner casings and into the bottom of the separator. The coarser particles of material, on the other hand, being too heavy to be floated from the separator chamber settle downwardly into the hopper '7. The apparatus just described is of well known type and requires no further explanation for an understanding of the present invention.

In accordance with the aims of the invention to obtain a desirable agitation of the air within the separator chamber and to cause disintegration of the coarser particles of material, 1 provide at circumferentially spaced intervals about the circumference of the distributor plate a series of turbulators constructed as best shown in Fig. 2. As shown in this figure each turbulator is composed of a bracket 25 and a plurality of flights 26 located one above the other immediately above the plane of the distributor plate, the term immediately being used to imply any position within the spacing interval between the planes of the distributor plate 22 and the baifie disk 19. This bracket, which may be cast or fashioned from bar stock, is constituted of a horizontal leg 2'? and a vertical leg or post 28, the horizontal leg being of circular cross-section and the post being of rectangular cross-section. The bracket is detachably clamped to the under side of the distributor plate by means of a pair of U-bolts 29 which straddle the horizontal cylindrical leg of the bracket and 7 have their ends extended through suitable holes in the distributor plate and threaded to receive nuts 30. These nuts when tightened against the top of the distributor plate cause the U-bolts to clamp the horizontal leg securely against its under surface but allow adjustment of the post either radially of the distributor plate or about a horizontal axis, designated aa in Fig. 2, into a position such as that shown in dotted lines.

The flights 26 are elongated in shape and are attached at one of their ends to a flat face of the post 28 with their free ends projecting toward the wall of the separator chamber. The

flights are secured to the post by means of bolts 31 which pass through suitable openings in the 112 post and the flights, the ends of these bolts being threaded and provided with clamping nuts 32. The openings 33 in the post, receiving the bolts 31, are elongated in a direction lengthwise of the post so as to permit adjustment of the flights bodily toward and from each other to vary their spacing intervals. The flights also may be tilted about the bolts 31 as pivots into any desired angular relation with respect to their path of travel, 7

such as the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Each flight for a portion of its length advantageously may be bent, in a direction transversely of its width, so as normally, when the post is disposed in upright position, to deflect the air encountered by the flight in a downward direction, or opposite to the general direction of air movement. This is illustrated by the upper and lower flights in Fig. 2 and the amount of this deflection may be varied by adjusting the tilt of post 28 as above explained. Likewise the flights 1' Y may be bent in a reverse manner if desired to assist the air in its rising movement, or some of the flights may be bent one way and others the opposite way. The flights may be all of uni-- 1 form length or, as shown in the figure, one of them may be provided with a tail piece 34 extending rearwardly beyond the point of its attachment to the post so as to overlie the margin of the bafile disk 19.

The flights revolve within the area of the separator chamber located beyond the periphery of the distributor plate and generally intermediate the planes of the distributor plate and bafile disk. The lower flight or each turbulator as shown in Fig. 2 lies in substantially the same plane as the distributor plate so that as the material showers off of this plate it is violently caught up by these lower flights and whirled radially outward. The impact of the flights with the material not only causes disintegration of the oversize particles and of any cohering particles but by batting the material outwardly as it leaves the distributor plate the material is caused to be more widely disseminated across the path of the ascending air currents. This latter action also retards the settling of the coarser and heavier particles into the hopper 7 and thus more time is afforded in which the air currents may Winnow out the finer from the coarser particles and a better separation of material results. In a similar manner the flights located above the plane of the distributor plate rake through the air immediately above the distributor plate which is densely laden with particles of material rising from off the distributor plate and subject these particles to a whipping or beating action and thoroughly churn the same into admixture with the air currents.

The proper clearance between the tips of the flights and the wall of the separator chamber may be obtained by releasing the nuts 30 and adjusting the brackets to the desired extent inwardly or outwardly upon the distributor plate, as before stated. The flights in any event will project for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber and preferably will extend to a position adjacent the wall of the separator chamber where the air is heavily charged with the particles traveling toward and rebounding from the wall of the chamber.

I claim:

1. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other and located beyond the margin and above the plane of the distributor plate, and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber.

2. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis Within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other and located beyond the margin and above the plane of the distributor plate and terminating relatively closely adjacent the wall of the separator chamher so as to strike the heavier particles reflected from the wall of the chamber.

3. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other and located beyond the margin of the distributor plate and immediately above the plane of the distributor plate, and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber.

4. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other and located beyond the margin of the distributor plate and immediately above the plane of the distributor plate and extending to a position adjacent the wall of the separator chamber so as to strike the heavier particles reflected from the wall of the chamber.

5. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators spaced about the circumference of said distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other and immediately above the plane of the distributor plate and adjustable toward and from each other to vary the spacing between the flights.

6. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators spaced about the circumference of said distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a bracket supported upon the distributor plate and extending upwardly therefrom and a plurality of flights mounted on said bracket and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber.

7. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators spaced about the circumference of said distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a bracket supported upon the distributor plate and extending upwardly therefrom and a plurality of flights mounted on said bracket one above the other, and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator lid.

chamber, said bracket being adjustable radially of the distributor plate.

8. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators spaced about the circumference of said distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a bracket supported upon the, distributor plate and extending upwardly therefrom and a plurality of flights mounted on said bracket one above the other, in relatively widely spaced relation, and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamher, said bracket being adjustable about a horizontal axis to tilt it from perpendicular.

9. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators spaced about the circumference of said distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a bracket supported upon the distributor plate and extending upwardly therefrom, a plurality of relatively narrow flights arranged one above the other and relatively widely spaced apart, said bracket being adjustable radially of the distributor plate and said flights being bodily adjustable toward and from each other and about horizontal axes and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber.

10. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, a baffie disk located in spaced relation above the distributor plate, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributorplate and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other intermediate the planes of the distributor plate and the baffle disk and projecting for a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber.

11. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, a baffle disk located in spaced relation above the distributor plate, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plu rality of flights arranged in spaced relation one above the other intermediate the planes of the distributor plate and the bafile disk and extending beyond the margin of the distributor plate to a position adjacent the wall of the separator chamber so as to strike the heavier particles reflected from the wall of the chamber.

12. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate, and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation beyond the margin and above the plane of the distributor plate and extending a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber, the plurality of flights of each turbulator being located in a plane disposed transversely to the path of movement of the flights.

13. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis Within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate, and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in approximately parallel spaced relation beyond the margin and above the plane of the distributor plate, and extending a major portion of the distance between the distributor plate and the wall of the separator chamber, said turbulators being rotatable in consonance with the distributor plate, and the plurality of flights of each turbulator being located in a plane disposed transversely to the path of movement of the flights.

14. In an air separator comprising a separator chamber, a fan for creating an ascending circulation of air through the separator chamber, a distributor plate rotatable about a vertical axis Within the separator chamber, means for introducing pulverulent material onto said distributor plate, and turbulators circumferentially spaced about the distributor plate, said turbulators each comprising a plurality of flights arranged in spaced relation beyond the margin and above the plane of the distributor plate and extending to a position adjacent the Wall of the separator chamber so as to strike the heavier particles reflected from the wall of the chamber, said turbulators being rotatable in consonance with the distributor plate, and the plurality of flights of each turbulator being located in a plane disposed transversely to the path of movement of the flights.

WILLIAM A. GIBSON. 

